Humanoid! Robots! In space! It’s been 15 years in the making, and now mankind is finally ready to launch Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot, into space. The “robot butler” is designed to help human space travelers, and perhaps, at some point, even replace them during particularly risky missions.
Robonaut 2 will be part of the November 1st shuttle launch, taking off packed in a box full of foam on the space shuttle Discover.
“The challenge we accepted when we started the Robonaut project was to build something capable of doing dexterous, human-like work,” NASA’s Rob Ambrose told MSNBC. “From the very beginning, the idea was the robot had to be capable enough to do the work but at the same time be safe and trusted to do that work right next to humans.”
In the meantime, he’s been embarking on an equally arduous mission: Twitter. The space ‘bot has been tweeting since July under the handle @AstroRobonaut. He’s accrued some 16,000-odd followers in that time, helping engage space fans with tweets such as, “I have exactly one week left on Earth — Discovery (and I!) launches at 4:40 p.m. Eastern on Nov. 1!!”
Godspeed, robot space butler.